Roger Meier, descendant of founders of Meier & Frank, dies
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Businessman - His wife says he was most proud of his PERS and Oregon
Investment Council work
Thursday, June 08, 2006
LAURA GUNDERSON
When Roger Meier went fishing, he occasionally bumped into a fellow
fisherman who recognized the former chairman of the Oregon Investment
Council, the group that manages the state's public retirement fund.
The stranger, maybe a city employee or a teacher, would stop Meier, his
wife recalled, and thank him for all that he had done to change how the
council raised money.
"That meant a lot to him," Laura Meier said. "His major love was the
Public Employees Retirement System and the Oregon Investment Council;
it was his great focus and he was proud of how he had made it grow."
Meier, a descendant of the founders of the Meier & Frank company
and an Oregon governor, died Monday night. He was 80.
A fourth-generation Oregonian, Meier graduated from Yale University in
1950 and two years later, married Laura Schwartz of New York City.
He worked as a director and vice president for Meier & Frank until
the department store was sold to the May Department Store Co. in 1965.
Meier also served as president and chief executive officer of AMCO
Inc., a private investment company, for more than 30 years.
In 1970, Oregon Gov. Tom McCall appointed him as a member of the PERS
board and the Oregon Investment Council, an unpaid position he held for
16 years.
As chairman of the council from 1972 to 1986, Meier helped pioneer an
investment plan that grew the pension from a conservatively managed
$400 million portfolio into a broadly invested pool of $10 billion.
Meier, picking up where then-State Treasurer Bob Straub had left off,
pushed the council to invest through professional money managers in
common and international stock, real estate and private equity through
leveraged buy-outs.
A law Straub ferried through the Legislature allowed the council to
invest privately, but limited those investments to 10 percent of the
fund. Meier made the gutsy move to change that, said James C. George,
then-chief investment officer of the state treasury and the council's
executive secretary.
One of Meier's more famous -- and highly criticized moves -- was to
support a buy-out of the local grocery chain, Fred Meyer, in 1972. That
year, the council put $176 million, or 8 percent of the total fund,
into Fred Meyer. By the mid-1970s, it had received about $800 million
back, George said.
"One of the questions Roger always asked was, 'If we do well, who
benefits? The retirees or taxpayers?' " said George, adding that when
he retired in 1992, about 70 percent of the council's portfolio was in
equities. "I think the answer would be both."
Meier also donated his financial acumen to help the Legacy Health
Systems Retirement Trust and the Portland Art Museum.
"Whether it was PERS or the art museum, Roger was such a dedicated
individual. He loved the city and a lot of things in this city are
thanks to him," said Melvin "Pete" Mark, chairman of Melvin Mark Cos.
The two families, friends for more than 50 years, shared a holiday
tradition: Christmas Eves at the Meiers and Thanksgiving eves at the
Marks -- where parents, kids and folks without family nearby would
gather for toasts and to share memories of the year.
Meier is survived by his wife, Laura; daughters, Alix Goodman and Jill
Garvey; sons-in-law, Tom Goodman and Tony Garvey; and four
grandchildren.
The list of Meier's involvement on local nonprofit and company boards
includes the Portland Art Museum, Pacific Western Bank, PacWest
Bancorp, NI Industries, Fred Meyer Inc,, Key Bank of Oregon, The Catlin
Gabel School, University of Oregon Health Sciences Center, Legacy Good
Samaritan Hospital & Medical Center, and the Oregon Historical
Society.